Attempts to contain and clean up the oil slick created by the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig continue. The slick continues to grow by the day and move perilously close to the shore of the US's southern states. In this photo, shrimp boats are used to collect oil with booms in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana. Picture: AP

By Cain Burdeau,Harry R. Weber, The Associated Press
6/05/2010 3:36 PM NEW ORLEANS – Crews prepared Thursday to lower a 100-tonne box they hoped would cut off most of the crude spewing from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, the urgency of their task underscored by oil that started washing up on delicate barrier islands. If the concrete-and-steel box they plan to lower 1.5 kilometres into the ocean works, it could collect as much as 85 per cent of the oil leaking from the ocean floor after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. The technique has not been tried before at that depth. “Hopefully, it will work better than they expect,” first mate Douglas Peake told The Associated Press aboard the ship that brought the box to the site. The AP is the only news organization with access to the containment effort. … A pinkish oily substance was lapping at the shore of New Harbor Island, washing into thick marsh grass. It looked like soggy cornflakes, possibly because it was mixed with chemicals that it had been sprayed to break it up before it reached land. Offshore, birds dove into the water amid lines of orange oil, but none appeared to be in distress. There were numerous dead jellyfish, some washing up on the shore. It’s nesting time for sea gulls and pelicans and the danger is they may be taking contaminated food or oil on their feathers to their young. People don’t live on New Harbor, which is in the Chandeleurs, an important chain of barrier islands off Louisiana that are part of a national wildlife refuge and provide a nesting ground for sea birds. Streaks of putrid, orange and rust-colored oil were also creeping well west of the mouth of the Mississippi River in an area that has received less attention. Much of the oil west of the river was still kilometres out in the Gulf, but there appeared to be little or no effort to contain or clean it up. There were hundreds of dead man-o-war there. Out at sea, some boats were using skimmers to suck up oil while others were corralling and setting fire to it to burn it off the surface. …

AP Exclusive: Crews prepare to lower 100-tonne device to contain oil spewing from ocean floor